New Trump Card
A water cage Gu, made for capturing wild Gu worms, drops into Fang Yuan’s palm the moment he finishes another round of refining. The hairy man across from him is still working; seeing Fang Yuan already done, he howls in despair, and thunder kills him. This is the thirty second round of King Xin Inheritance, a trial as cruel as King Quan Inheritance before it, built around refinement path Gu Masters who must tread through blood and death to advance. Every ten rounds the trial grows harder, and the hairy men who appear grow smarter and stronger with it. ch. 358
Through the first twenty rounds or so, Fang Yuan wins easily by flattering the hairy men into losing their concentration. From the thirtieth round the hairy men are huge and genuinely sharp, and he can only compete on even terms. Unspent Gu refinement materials carry forward between rounds, a trick King Xin built into her own inheritance that stayed secret for a full year in Fang Yuan’s previous life. Here it is still known to only a small fraction of the participants. His stockpile from the easy rounds, together with that lifetime of experience, carries him further than he ever managed inside King Quan Inheritance. From the fortieth round the difficulty jumps by several folds, and Gu Masters may draw on one Gu of their own, though only a refinement path one qualifies. Fang Yuan has neither such a Gu nor much material left, and advancing becomes a genuine struggle. Every round past the fortieth now pays out a reward of its own, refinement path Gu, recipes, or primeval stones among them. When the forty fourth round offers him a chance to leave, he takes it, having spent longer inside King Xin Inheritance than he ever did inside King Quan Inheritance. ch. 358
Back on San Cha mountain, Tie clan’s purple light barrier still stands. Its four old timers still wait outside the three kings inheritance rather than entering it, and Bai Ning Bing is still trapped. The light pillars atop the mountain’s peaks have shrunk to the thickness of a cup. As long as any thread of light survives, the doors stay open, though every Gu Master who enters may use that entry only once. Fang Yuan trades with Li Xian again, and Li Xian reports that Tie clan’s four old timers have already called for reinforcements. Tie Ba Xiu, a rank four upper stage strength path Gu Master, leads the group. It also carries Tie Ruo Nan, one of Tie clan’s eight young masters and the daughter of Divine Investigator Tie Xue Leng, already at rank four initial stage while young. Li Xian lingers on Tie Ruo Nan without knowing Fang Yuan already knows her, and Fang Yuan privately notes that the reinforcements match his previous life exactly. Li Xian urges him to act before the group arrives, since their arrival will free the four old timers to move against Bai Ning Bing. Fang Yuan only asks him to keep watching their future deals, and leaves. ch. 358
Once Fang Yuan is gone, Li Xian’s face turns grave. This little beast king will not be moved, and he wonders whether the rumored bond with Bai Ning Bing runs as deep as people say, and decides to bring Hu Mei Er into it. Stirring trouble between others for his own gain has become second nature to him. Hu Mei Er brightens at the news and presses affectionately against him, calling him the one who loves her best. ch. 358
A reward from the inheritance turns out to be a yellow gold relic Gu, a rank four Gu so tightly controlled by the great clans that even Li Xian cannot buy one. It can raise a rank four Gu Master’s cultivation by a small realm outright. His aperture’s primeval sea already stands at ninety percent, with Spring Autumn Cicada flickering at its center and suppressing the new Gu on contact. Fang Yuan hides the cicada away and activates the relic Gu instead. A night of golden light later, he wakes at rank four middle stage, able to reach rank four upper stage essence gold primeval essence if he adds nine eyes liquor worm. He has surpassed Bai Ning Bing in cultivation for the first time, and his now sturdier aperture walls can bear more of Spring Autumn Cicada’s pressure, easing its death warrant a little further. ch. 358
Next he takes out the footless bird Gu he and Bai Ning Bing once flew together, a rank three Gu that ranks as the best mount below rank five. It can cross ten thousand miles, but only ever once, since landing kills it. He throws it into a fresh refinement with nine palace flowers, aspiring stone, golden crow’s essence, chilling grass, and a hundred and eighty thousand primeval stones. What comes out is bone wings Gu, rank four. When he pours primeval essence into it, bone tears out through his own spine and ribs in a burst of pain and knits into two enormous wings. Where an ordinary bone wings Gu is spotless white, his have turned pitch black with a metal luster. His skeleton was already reformed by iron bone Gu and steadily strengthened since by rank four essence iron bone, leaving him wings far sturdier than the ordinary kind. Most Gu Masters need two to three years before they can fly on bone wings Gu at all, and at least five years before they can fight while airborne. Five hundred years of flying in his previous life spare Fang Yuan all of it, and he flexes the wings once, satisfied, before turning his thoughts to Bai Ning Bing’s matter. ch. 358
